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Monday, November 14, 2016

What Happened on November 14?

History has always been fascinating to me. It's fun to look back and see what interesting things have happened in history on any given date. Some of them are good and some are bad. Here are few things that have happened in history on November 14.

In 1732 the first professional librarian in the US, Louis Timothee, was hired in Philadelphia. I found this interesting since my older daughter is an academic librarian.

For all of us book lovers, Moby Dick was published on November 14, 1851, and reporter Nellie Bly, aka Elizabeth Cochrane, set out to beat the fictional conquest of going around the world in 80 days. She completed the task in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.

I was reminded of two of the bad things from this date while we were traveling in Europe in recent years. On November 14, 1935, the Nazi's took away German citizenship from the Jews. Here is a photo of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany.

The other tragedy occurred on November 14, 1956, when the USSR squelched the Hungarian revolt. This is a photo taken in Budapest, Hungary. The photo below is a Soviet era car that is made mostly of cardboard and is left on the street as a reminder of the occupation.

Now let's move on to some more pleasant happenings for November 14.

In 1968, Yale became a coed university.

In 1972, the Dow Jones closed above 1,000 for the first time.

In 1994, the first public trains ran in the English Channel Tunnel.

In 1997, the Lion King sets a daily Broadway sales record of $2,700,000.

In 2012, the smartphones app for Candy Crush Saga was released.

In 2013, a picture of one of the rarest mammals, the saola, an Asian unicorn, is released.

Which one of these events is the most surprising or interesting to you?

I will be giving away a print copy of my book Montana Match to someone who leaves a comment. If you live outside the US, I will send an e-book copy of another one of my books. I will draw the winner on November 15, 2016, at 9PM MST.

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Merrillee Whren is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award presented by Romance Writers of American. She is married to her own
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The fact that a librarian was hired in 1732 in Philadelphia is most interesting to me. The bad political things should be considered by all Americans so we do not let those things happen here at home in the USA.